The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-08-19

broke from the injured, mingled with
groans and prayers for help. The crowd,
which had all the while been growing
larger, now numbered over thou
sand. Hundreds of people were crying
and uniting for missing ones, Doctors
hurrle4 1rem group TO group among the
victims and ministered to their wants.
Faint means proceeded from the
wreck. Streaks and clots of blood
We're everywhere. All sorts of wear
ing apparel-hats, cloal1s, wraps of
all kinds, shoes, shirts, every thing-was
scattered above, beneath and around the
wreck, mute evidences of the awful sud-
Genness Of the calamity. Over and above
all the intense horror of the situation
brooded. and the faces of the rescuers and
spectators in the early morning light
were drawn and blan ched
CHATswoRTH, ILL.,, Aug. 1.-two special
trains left here for Peoria at eight o'clock
last night, packed with boxes containing
dead bodies. Confusion reigns. The core
ner left for the scene of the wreck at
three O'Clock yesterday afternoon. Thou
sands of people from the neighboring
towns are here looking for relatives
and attending to the wounded. The ma
jority of the dead are Peoria people,
The train contained 175 people from
Peoria city and county and of this NUNS
Der at least forty one were killed. Mrs:
Murphy and her two daughters, of Peoria,
were all fatally wounded and died during
the day at the school-ho here. Thirty
three people got on the train at Fairbury,
Livingston County, and a majority of them
were farmers
PEoRfA H., Aug. 12.-Peoria is stricken
with grief. The appalling disaster to the
| Niagara excursion train enters every cir
Gle in the city. From statements of sur
yivers it appears that the culvert was
| burning before the tram reached it.
| The scenes here are heartrending,
| business is stagnated, and thou.
| sands OF people besege the depot
| and newspaper offices. 1t is diff
| iicult to get list of the dead G. w.
| Scott, an old Toledo, Peoria & Western
| conductor, puts the number of deaths at
| 1875 and of the wounded at 100 and this is
an average of the estimate Of other cools
| headed survivors:
| A public meeting was held in the court.
house square at eight p. m., at which
| Judge James presided. Several com.
mittees were appointed to memorable the
dead and assist the wounded. The town
is stricken with horror.
CHATswoRTH, Ill.,, Aug. IA noble girl
named Jennie Brebner of Pennington,
| H., was one of the notable herones of the
wreck. She was in the disaster, but was
unhurt, and hour after hour from that
event acted as nurse for the dying victims.
| 1t was she and score Of others like her
who redeemed confidence in human nature
after a sight of the vandalism of the
wreck.
| n NTINTf Il
| Board of Railroad and Warehouse Com
| missioners will leave here this morning at
| $40 by special train for ChatsWorth to in.
vestigate the causes of the railroad accis
dent:
FORREST, ILL.,, Aug. I2-Coroner DR..
| Charles II. Long, of Ford County, was en-
gagged all day in m making out list of the
| dead. AT nine o'clock last night his list
contained seventy-one names, but did not
contain the names of those of the dead
shipped to Peoria by the special train.
The jury summoned by the coroner
to inquire into the disaster is as fol-
lowss ". w. Sears, John r. Bingham,
| Frank Osborn, H. Turner, d. g. Shaw, P.
L. Cook. They all viewed the bodies dur.
ing the afternoon and at 80 o clock the
inquest was opened at the school, house.
| The first witness called was E. n Arm
strong, general superintendent of the To-
! ledo, Peoria q Western road, of Peoria,
| He testified as follows
! 'The train left Chatsworth at 11:45
| o'clock Wednesday night There were fff-
| teen cars in this train, containing from
600 to 700 people. At exactly II 80 I was
awakened by terrible shock, and the first
| thing that I saw was that the train was en-.
| cireled with flames. After recovering from
the shock Noticed that my wife and the party
| who were with me were alive. AS soon as 7
saw my party in safety jumped out of the WIN
| dow and hurried to the cries of the dying
| and wounded. AS soon as it was possible
| the wounded were taken out of the wreck
and placed in the sleepers that remained
| untouched. I did not see any rob-
bling going on, although saw many parties
handling the corpses, who told me they were
looking for relatives wlves husbands and chill
dren. think the speed Of the train was thirtys
four or thirty-fve miles an hour One of my
section men told me that he had gone
! out at $50 o'clock the night before to
! examine the road and found every
| thing in good condition. There were
no signs of fire. Prairie fires swept over that
! section of the country ten days before En-
| gineer Sutherland, who was on the first engine,
noticed blaze when the tram approached the
bridge. He thought first that green leaves
were burning by the bridge, but soon saw the
bridge itself was in flames He began to whistle
for the brakes, but it was too late. In a mo-
1nent the train was wreck